Be Still, My Indelible Friend (You Are Unbreaking)
by WinterSky101
Summary: Klaus gets an idea for a sibling bonding activity between him and Vanya, and it actually works out pretty well. Post-Season 1.


**This takes place in a slight AU where the apocalypse didn't happen (or, I suppose, further in the future after they went back in time to fix it).**

**Title comes from "Wasteland, Baby!" by Hozier.**

* * *

"Vanya! Vaaaaanyaaaaaaa! Vanya Vanya Vanya Vanya Vanya! Vaaaaaaaaaaan-"

"What is it, Klaus?" Vanya asked, sticking her head out of her door.

"Vanya!" Klaus said brightly. For an uncharitable moment, Vanya wondered if he were drunk and/or high, but Klaus had been doing a good job at staying sober so far (aided, he'd admitted, by Ben's newfound ability to punch pills out of his mouth), and this sort of behavior was pretty in-character for him whether he was sober or not. Even when he was young, Klaus had always loved attention.

"Do you need something?" Vanya asked.

"I have a proposition for you," Klaus stated. "See, I need to get these touched up." He did jazz hands, showing off the HELLO and GOODBYE tattoos on his hands. "I didn't think I'd need to get them touched up for another year or so, but then I got stuck in 1960s Vietnam for ten months, so actually, it _has_ been about as much time as I thought between touch-ups, it's just that ten of those months were-" Klaus stopped abruptly, blinked as if he were listening to something, then refocused on Vanya's face. "But that's not important. Anyway. I need to get my tattoos touched up, and I thought you might want to come with me."

"You thought I would want to come with you?" Vanya repeated. "Um, no offense, Klaus, but why?"

"Well," Klaus said, "I thought you might like to get a tattoo of your own. Maybe one of these."

Vanya knew Klaus was going to show her his wrist tattoo a moment before he did, but still, she looked down when he held out his arm. That tattoo didn't look like it had been cared for as much as Klaus's palm tattoos had been. The umbrella looked a little faded, and the edges had grown a little softer. Vanya supposed that was probably normal, though, since Klaus had had the tattoo for over fifteen years.

She still remembered the day that her siblings all got their matching umbrella tattoos. They had signified that the six of them were part of something together, that they were part of the Umbrella Academy. Vanya had asked her father if she could get one, but he'd dismissed her, and instead, she'd watched her siblings and drew on her wrist with marker that washed off within the week. Ever since then, there had been times that the bare skin of her wrist haunted her, but she'd never gotten up the nerve to do anything about it.

"You don't have to if you don't want to," Klaus said. "Or you could get something totally different. It's your choice."

"Dad didn't let me get the tattoo with the rest of you," Vanya said.

"Dad was a dick," Klaus replied. "And it was screwed up that he made a bunch of twelve year olds get tattoos, but it was also screwed up that he didn't let you get one. Does that make sense?" His eyes flickered to the side quickly and he muttered, "I wasn't _asking_ you, Ben."

"Hi, Ben," Vanya said.

"Ben says hi back," Klaus reported. "And he's worried that I'm pressuring you to get a tattoo, which I'm _not_. I'm just saying, when Dad made us all get these, he didn't give us a choice. And when he didn't let you get one, he didn't give you a choice either. But now we're adults, and he's dead anyway, so we can make our own choices. So…" Klaus shrugged. "Wanna go get a tattoo?"

Twenty years ago, Vanya would have jumped at the chance. Even ten years ago, she probably would have done it. But now… She wanted to be a member of the family, and she wanted to be close to the others, but the symbol of the Umbrella Academy had only ever brought her pain, and she didn't think she wanted it tattooed on her body.

However…

"Yeah," Vanya said, "I do."

"Wait, really?" Klaus asked, looking shocked. "You do?"

"I'm not gonna get _that_ tattoo," Vanya said. "But I do want to get one."

"Seriously?"

"Yeah."

"Ha!" Klaus yelled, so loudly that Vanya jumped. "Suck it, Ben!" He looked back at Vanya and explained, "Ben bet me that you wouldn't want to get a tattoo. But you do, so I win!"

Vanya rolled her eyes, but she did it fondly. "Come on. Let's go."

She left her left wrist bare, in case she changed her mind later. She didn't think she'd ever want the umbrella tattooed on her skin, but maybe someday, she'd feel differently. Maybe someday, the symbol would come to mean something more than her father's abuse, and she would want to match her siblings. She doubted it, but she left the option open.

But on her other wrist, mirroring the spot where the others had their umbrella tattoos, Vanya had her tattoo artist ink a delicate circle with a violin inside it, her own twist on the family symbol. Her violin had almost helped her end the world, but it had also been her only form of expression for years, and she had always believed that her music kept her sane. This was just paying homage to that. Dad wouldn't like it, but Vanya never had to care what Dad would like ever again.

"So," Klaus said when Vanya finished her tattoo and meandered over to watch the other tattoo artist finish touching up the letters of GOODBYE, "did you get your tattoo?"

"I did," Vanya said, and she held out her plastic-wrapped wrist to let Klaus see.

There was understanding in Klaus's eyes, something almost like recognition. Vanya thought about the tattoos that he had, the tattoos that he'd gotten with the full awareness that their father would hate them (and oh, how he'd hated the HELLO and GOODBYE tattoos with a _passion_), and thought he probably did understand why she had gotten hers.

"Nice," was all he said. "Not gonna get the other one?"

"Not today," Vanya said, looking down at her still-bare left wrist, "but maybe someday."

"Well, you've got time," Klaus said, looking down at his hands. The tattoo artist was just finishing touching up the final E. "I've still got to do my other hand."

"I'll wait," Vanya said, sitting down next to Klaus.

"Thank you, sister dear," Klaus said, and the tattoo artist moved around him and got started on HELLO.


End file.
